Happy Birthday
by beenieweenie
Summary: Harry's 16th is rapidly approaching. Let's hope he enjoys it. Trust me it won't end like you think it will. Hehe.


Disclaimer:  J.K. Rouwling owns all characters and locations pertaining to Harry Potter and any of the related books and movies.  I sure as hell don't own anything.  Spoilers to OotP.

Happy Birthday

By beenieweenie

July 30th

Draco Malfoy was in a hurry.  His plan had taken longer to prepare than he'd thought and he was late.  He hurried through Malfoy Manor, headed towards the Owlery.  Draco cradled the letter in his hands gently, as though he were afraid of it.  He strode down the halls of the Manor imperiously, glaring at the few house elves he saw to send them scampering out of his way.  Soon enough Draco was climbing the stairs to the Owlery.

The first thing that hit him when he entered the Owlery was the smell.  The Owlery of Malfoy Manor was cleaner than most, but it still smelled distinctly of birds.  Ignoring the smell Draco stalked over to one of the less intimidating birds, a small barn owl.  He tied the letter to the owl's leg, carried it to the open window at the other end of the Owlery and sent it on its way.

As the bird sped off Draco smirked to himself.  He'd achieved his goal and gotten his revenge for the indignity he'd suffered at the start of the summer holiday.  Then, still smirking, Draco turned and stalked away from the window, heading back to his room.

July 31st

            The sky was dark and full of stars, which Harry Potter was diligently plotting on a star map for Astronomy.  It was a beautiful night and being able to recognize the constellations made Harry even more appreciative of it.  But Harry had ulterior motives for doing this particular homework assignment on that night.  It was after midnight and that meant that he was officially 16 now, and he was waiting for his friend's owls to arrive.

            Harry took a break from the star map and gazed at the sickle moon.  A soft hooting caught his attention and he backed away from the window as a large, snowy owl glided through it.  Harry smiled at the return of his owl, Hedwig, and walked over to untie the package attached to her leg.  As he finished a small, gray ball of feathers zoomed through the window.  Harry snatched it out of the air and relieved the small animal of its burden before releasing it to zoom around the room wildly.  Then two barn owls entered the room, both landing on Harry's bed.  Harry frowned.  He could tell one of the owls was from Hogwarts because of the seal on the envelope it carried, but he didn't recognize the other owl.  Harry quickly took the letters these owls carried and they both took off at once and left again.

            Harry collected the other letters and packages from his desk and sat on the floor of his room.  He recognized Hermione's and Ron's packages because of their handwriting on the address, as well as the package and letter from Hogwarts and Hagrid that had come together with the Hogwarts bird, but the script on the letter that the strange bird had delivered was completely unknown to him.  

Harry frowned slightly and looked at the letter.  It was simply addressed to "Harry Potter".  No stamps or seals were apparent and it was tightly sealed.  Harry looked at the other packages, no doubt filled with presents and then back at the letter in his hands.  Then curiosity won and Harry broke the seal of the letter.

The last thing Harry heard was a familiar voice incanting the killing curse.  A green light flew out of the envelope and struck Harry in the chest.  The two owls in the room immediately began to hoot loudly, disturbed and scared by what had happened.

            Dawn came silently over Privet Drive.  Eventually the alarm in Vernon and Petunia Dursley's rang, waking them.  They went about their morning, getting ready for the day.  Then Petunia went to wake up her nephew, Harry, and set him to get breakfast prepared.  

She opened the door to his room, but immediately saw that he was not in his bed.  Slowly she stepped into the room, frowning when she saw the open window.  Then she saw her nephew, lying ungracefully on the floor.  She strode over, ready to tell him to get up but when she got to him she knew something was wrong.  Clutched in Harry's hand was a letter, and his eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling.  Petunia screamed as she realized her nephew was dead.  This awoke the owls in the room and once again they began to hoot loudly.

Vernon Dursley came charging into the room, yelling bloody murder to see what was wrong.  Petunia was immediately in his arms, close to fainting.  The small owl that had stayed took to flight and zoomed out the window.  A breeze streamed gently into the window, catching the star map on the desk.  The map floated off the desk and landed quietly on the still, cold figure on the floor.

Fini

Author's Note:  Sorry…I know you didn't want to see Harry die, but there is no way that Draco would just let him get away with inadvertently turning him into a giant slug.


End file.
